<p>Don’t you love office politics?</p>
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<p>Software development. At the time, the 20th largest in the US.</p>
<p>I didn’t even get into the boss who was demanding kickbacks from suppliers, the CFO who never paid bills until they were at 3rd or 4th notice, causing financial distress to suppliers who had to meet their own payroll and eventually asked us NOT to ask them to bid projects, etc, etc.</p>
<p>consolation, was this the sales or marketing dept???</p>
<p>The “boys” were mostly the head of divisions devoted to different development platforms. The department I managed–technical publications–was a central resource that served all of them.</p>
<p>Wow… consolation…most of the people I know in software are quiet and socially awkward. They put their headphones on and get to work…</p>
<p>But I don’t know that many software people…</p>
<p>Your last paragraph in post #82…echhh…</p>
<p>I’ve led such a sheltered life compared to most of you. I have nothing close to what you folks experienced - just an odd germaphobe or someone with strong views that come to the workplace. Everyone else has been far too straight for the most part, and have even stopped commenting when I do things like bringing home made yogurt to work and eating it with cilantro, hot peppers, salt, and spices. </p>
<p>Working overseas (about 30 years ago) was a bit more different because of the culture - a lot less political correctness, and more honesty, for starters. In Hong Kong a sales VP looked at a bunch of us at lunch and without any self censorship quite explicitly told us what he thought people of the various nationalities and ethnicities (surprisingly Chinese from the inner country took more heat than the rest of us). At the company itself, surprisingly, I did much better than I expected, rapidly rising to middle management, which I later found out was because our company would never have made me an executive and wasn’t a threat to anyone at the top, and I was preferred over more experienced Chinese. </p>
<p>The Japanese we dealt with were the hardest to read till someone briefed us about their modus operandi - there would be people who were polite beyond anything you’ve seen, but with a predetermined decision to absolutely not to buy anything from you as long as there was some Japanese alternative. It was also a place where I was shocked by their openness in other areas - the people who manned the office there (also mainly expats) took us to a night club where foreign dancers performed on the stage and then invited people from the audience to perform with them - right there - out in the open, with lot of encouragement coming from the tables as a middle aged local businessman want on stage and had a bit of difficulty performing.</p>
<p>Malaysia was entertaining - we dealt a lot with Chinese controlled small businesses who were required to have a native Malay partner. When we talked about business systems, the first question about the accounting system was if it did triple book accounting - one for the government showing no profits, one for the “son of the soil” partner showing small profits, and the real one.</p>
<p>Thailand was where I got blacklisted by my company - we had our local dealer host a dinner to consummate a deal with the local office of a large US multinational, and it was attended by HQ people from our outfit and the customer’s. One item on the “dessert” menu consisted of young ladies walking though carrying numbers, and others at my table (mostly married, with lovely family portraits on their disks) started making selections; me, though unattached, had a huge problem with this setup, and was told in no uncertain terms that it wouldn’t look good if I didn’t swim with the tide. I ended up getting quite “sick” before the evening began in earnest, and was never subsequently invited to any after-work sales activities there.</p>
<p>While I never worked in Africa, I know of a colleague from Asia who was recruited to run the IT system in a factory in Nigeria. I recall hearing later he made a big mistake in not having his salary deposited in hard currency in a bank out of the country, and while leading a comfortable life while there, ended up with nothing when he left.</p>
<p>I also wasn’t used for work in the middle east because apparently (at that time, at least) they were quite open about a hierarchy of respect based on race, and for the level of people my company wanted to deal with, they felt it didn’t make any sense to send non-Whites.</p>
<p>The Aussies were the most fun people if I had to stereotype. Unlike the work-all day mindset of those in HK, they had their priorities, and were pretty productive too. They said the large companies there typically paid their employees a premium on their salaries (about 15%) when they were on vacation because they realized their expenses were higher. They also had a 6 month vacation at full salary or 12 months at half after working for some period of time, like 10-15 years that would let them do things like travel around the world.</p>
<p>Dad-of-3… Although nobody threw up or died…I like your post.</p>
<p>Consolation - I hope that is the worst story I ever hear about a workplace. I’m sure you celebrated when you left. </p>
<p>I’ve mostly worked in small non-profits. I once worked with a kitchen manager whose mental and physical health made it impossible for her to do her job. She turned out to be a big-time hoarder, apparently at home as well as at work. She couldn’t throw anything away - she plastic-bagged all leftovers, labeled them with the date, and filled several industrial-sized freezers and refrigerators. The pantry was choked with bizarre, expired canned goods that she had no use for but would not part with. I once needed to find something in the kitchen after she’d left for the day and discovered two dirty roasting pans hidden amongst the clean dishes because she hadn’t had time to wash them before leaving. She was fired shortly afterwards. </p>
<p>My worst boss ever operated a small non-profit children’s arts organization from his home. Let’s just say that he blurred the line between professional behavior/attire and at-home behavior/attire. I quickly became aware of several shady practices that he found necessary to keep the organization going. I called him on what would have been day 9 of my employment there and quit without notice. I’ve never felt a shred of remorse for doing so, either.</p>
<p>“Wow… consolation…most of the people I know in software are quiet and socially awkward. They put their headphones on and get to work…”</p>
<p>Consolation’s horror story dealt with management. Some IT heads cannot program themselves out of a paper bag.</p>
<p>I just want to say that it is good to know that I was not crazy in finding the state of affairs at Sleaze, Incorporated unusually–unacceptably–vile. :)</p>
<p>Until I retire in 2.5 years, I can’t post anything specific, but several years ago during lunch, the TV in the cafe was showing a place getting shot up, a few dead, place evacuated. I never did get the name of the place, until I got home.</p>
<p>It was our anniversary, and h got home before I did, though normally I arrived an hour before him. As i greeted him, I asked if he took off early to go out and celebrate. He wasn’t quite up to it, as that place I had seen on the news was his. The place was evacuated, all sent home. If I recall correctly, there were 5 killed. It involved a former employee with a grudge against management, a targeted assault.</p>
<p>If I’m still on CC when I retire, I’ll have some doozies.</p>
<p>Gloworm…Wow…scary…</p>
<p>Yes, it was. He was on break, in the rest room when the alarm sounded. When he got back to his area there was no one. </p>
<p>Not knowing what to do, he grabbed his car keys, and went outside, where he saw everyone leaving, and a colleague clued him in.</p>
<p>Must have been hard to go back to work there…</p>
<p>It was not a pleasant place to work before. He is counting down like me. We’ve been preparing.</p>
<p>I remember one of the criminal defense attorneys wore disposable latex gloves to court and was extremely eccentric (to put it mildly). He also sent the bailiffs a Christmas postcard of him in the buff with strategically placed nunchucks. He also bought tons of papertowels and disposable because he is a germophobe. Ironically, he also had ferral rats/mice in his apartment. Ick! </p>
<p>Didn’t hear about the other postcards he sent the bailiffs for the other years. The bailiffs put the nunchucks postcard on the door of their fridge.</p>
<p>On the positive side…2 1/2 years goes fast…</p>
<p>On the negative side…2 1/2 years goes fast.</p>
<p>I have no idea how nunchucks can be strategically placed…and I don’t think I want to know.</p>
<p>Wow, that would be incredibly tough going back to work after the workplace has been shot up. When that happened in HI, they abandonned the building where the murders occurred and built a new office building and had a blessing and counseling for all the surviving employees. 7 were murdered before the beserk gunman ran off. One of my staff members had known and worked with the gunman in earlier years, said the guy seemed very quiet. He did turn himself in & I believe was found guilty and is serving a life sentence without possibility of parole. <a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerox_murders[/url]”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerox_murders</a></p>
<p>Yea, the nunchuck guy definitely has issues. He never attended his courses in law school either but did great on all the exams.</p>
<p>I still remember that they hired a stripper (Peel O Gram) for our ethics prof in law school. She came in during the end of our class on his birthday and started performing. He stopped her before she finished her act and was pretty upset and embarassed. Don’t recall any bad fallout from that, but was surprised that it had happened.</p>
<p>Some how my reply got lost. In any case, my D has asked for a Skype session. Wants me to listen to her thoughts on grad school decisions.</p>